Hooray for Kate Winslet!

The Top Ten Church Moments Or Quotes (from Chico and Delamar's Daily Top 10)

I love Chico and Delamar! My mornings are not complete if I don't get to listen to their morning radio show Morning Rush on RX93.1. I would like to share with you the best of their Daily top 10, which they always do every morning. Catch Chico and Del every morning 6-10am on RX93.1

The Top Ten Church Moments Or Quotes
1. Em-em Unggoy - A small girl felt sick during mass and felt like throwing up. Her mom told her to go outside. She did and was back feeling better. Mom asked: "Saan ka sumuka?" Girl: "Dun sa gilid, sa box na nakalagay ‘For The Sick’."

2 Ian024 - We had a company anniversary mass. My officemate called me to go down and see the mass because there was an attendance sheet. I got offended by it and stayed in the office.

3. Marcus - Man was praying in church for God to give him P1000. The town mayor who was also in church overheard him and was so moved with pity that he gave the man P500 only which was all he had in his pocket. When the mayor left the man went back to praying: "Lord Salamat po. Pero next time pag bibigyan niyo ko ng pera, wag niyo na po padaanin kay Mayor."

4. Daryl - One time our priest was giving a passionate serm0n about how God doesn’t appr0ve of gays and cohab. Tinginan kami ng mga kabarkada ko (we’re 4 gays and 1 lesbo).

5. Maynman - One time when I was a kid, I insisted on eating candy during mass despite my parents telling me not to. The homily’s message was fittingly about obeying one’s parents. The candy got stuck in my throat and I began to choke. We had to go to the hospital and never finished the mass. Needless to say, I learned my lesson.

6. Astroboy - I read this in our church prayer b0x: "Dear G0d, thanks for the baby brother, but what I prayed for was a puppy."

7. Lara - During consecration, when all was quiet after the bell was rang, my 2-year-old sister said loudly, "Hello?"

8. Astroboy - During Sunday school, the kids were asked if there’s a c0mmandment that teaches how to treat their siblings. A little girl answered, "Th0u shall n0t kill?"

9. Dru - When it stopped raining as they left church, my inaanak said, "Naubusan ng tubig si Jesus…"

10. Padpaper - One time the priest made everyone jump in their seats when he said, "Ano ba nangyayari sa society ngayon, puro na lang SECTS, SECTS, SECTS!"

11. Nikki - My dad was in our parish when he noticed an elderly lay minister praying the Stations of the Cross backwards, i.e., from 14th Station to the 1st. My dad said: "Brod, mukhang paatras po ang dasal natin ah?" The lay minister said: "Ay sus! Kaya pala palakas ng palakas si Kristo!"

12. Strangelybeauty - When I was small, I was wondering why a lot of people get sleepy in church. My yaya said that whenever we go to church, there are small devils that pull on our eyelashes.

13. Jose de vengenge - Our pastor said in a sermon that the Olympics sign is satanic & that Christians should not join or even watch it. I walked out.

14. YñaKi- A reminder posted in a church said: "Please don’t leave your valuables unattended. The ones who find it might think its the answer to their prayers!"

15. Astroboy - During a church event, a sign was put near the basket of apples: "1 per person only. God is watching." Someone posted another sign near the basket of pears: "Get as much as you want. God is watching the apples."

16. Alle - At the end of his sermon, our pastor said in closing: "Let us all CLOSE our eyes, and sing the song, ‘OPEN MY EYES LORD’."

17. RhachaeL_Leigh - During the homily, the priest said: "Sige nga, sino dito ang wlang kagalit?" Obviously, everyone kept their hands down except for a 95-year-old lady, who raised her hand. The priest said, "Aba! Gayahin niyo si lola, siya lang ang walang kagalit. Lola, sabihin niyo sa lahat kung bakit wala kayong kagalit?" The lola answered: "Patay na kasi ang mga walanghiya!"

A Stirring Viewpoint on the current economic crisis (taken from Chris Tiu's blog)

One of the few celebrity blogsites I never fail to visit is that of Chris Tiu. Oh boy, the guy can write! I love it when he posts his daily activities, how his day or week went and how appreciative he is of the adulation and the fame that precedes him, and the way he's taking all of that. I also like the fact that he also gives his two cents worth on certain issues, and he also posts very significant articles in his blogs. I really admire Chris because aside from having the 4 B's (brains, beauty, body, breeding) and the money, he is a very down to earth, boy-next-door kind of guy. I would like to share with you his blog post, something that is very significant, especially in today's trying times. Please do visit http://chris-tiu.blogspot.com to read Chris' blogs.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Lee Wei Ling's Thoughts on the current crisis

Here is an article written by Lee Wei Ling, daughter of Singapore leader Lee Kuan Yew, in the Sunday Times in Singapore. Some beautiful insights about the economic crisis and giving it a different perspective. I totally agree with her sentiments.

In 2007, in an end-of-year message to the staff of the National Neuroscience
Institute, I wrote: 'Whilst boom time in the public sector is never as
booming as in the private sector, let us not forget that boom time is
eventually followed by slump time. Slump time in the public sector is always
less painful compared to the private sector.'

Slump time has arrived with a bang.

While I worry about the poorer Singaporeans who will be hit hard, perhaps
this recession has come at an opportune time for many of us. It will give us
an incentive to reconsider our priorities in life.

Decades of the good life have made us soft. The wealthy especially, but also
the middle class in Singapore, have had it so good for so long, what they
once considered luxuries, they now think of as necessities.

A mobile phone, for instance, is now a statement about who you are, not just
a piece of equipment for communication. Hence many people buy the latest
model though their existing mobile phones are still in perfect working
order.

A Mercedes-Benz is no longer adequate as a status symbol. For millionaires
who wish to show the world they have taste, a Ferrari or a Porsche is deemed
more appropriate. The same attitude influences the choice of attire and accessories. I still
find it hard to believe that there are people carrying handbags that cost
more than thrice the monthly income of a bus driver, and many more times
that of the foreign worker labouring in the hot sun, risking his life to
construct luxury condominiums he will never have a chance to live in.
The media encourages and amplifies this ostentatious consumption. Perhaps it
is good to encourage people to spend more because this will prevent the
recession from getting worse. I am not an economist, but wasn't that the
root cause of the current crisis - Americans spending more than they could
afford to?

I am not a particularly spiritual person. I don't believe in the
supernatural and I don't think I have a soul that will survive my death. But
as I view the crass materialism around me, I am reminded of what my mother
once told me: 'Suffering and deprivation is good for the soul.'

My family is not poor, but we have been brought up to be frugal. My parents
and I live in the same house that my paternal grandparents and their
children moved into after World War II in 1945. It is a big house by today's
standards, but it is simple - in fact, almost to the point of being shabby.
Those who see it for the first time are astonished that Minister Mentor Lee
Kuan Yew's home is so humble. But it is a comfortable house, a home we have
got used to. Though it does look shabby compared to the new mansions on our
street, we are not bothered by the comparison.

Most of the world and much of Singapore will lament the economic downturn.
We have been told to tighten our belts. There will undoubtedly be suffering,
which we must try our best to ameliorate.

But I personally think the hard times will hold a timely lesson for many
Singaporeans, especially those born after 1970 who have never lived through
difficult times.
No matter how poor you are in Singapore , the authorities and social groups
do try to ensure you have shelter and food. Nobody starves in Singapore .
Many of those who are currently living in mansions and enjoying a luxurious
lifestyle will probably still be able to do so, even if they might have to
downgrade from wines costing $20,000 a bottle to $10,000 a bottle. They
would hardly notice the difference.
Being wealthy is not a sin. It cannot be in a capitalist market economy.
Enjoying the fruits of one's own labour is one's prerogative and I have no
right to chastise those who choose to live luxuriously.
But if one is blinded by materialism, there would be no end to wanting and
hankering. After the Ferrari, what next? An Aston Martin? After the Hermes
Birkin handbag, what can one upgrade to?

Neither an Aston Martin nor an Hermes Birkin can make us truly happy or
contented. They are like dust, a fog obscuring the true meaning of life, and
can be blown away in the twinkling of an eye.
When the end approaches and we look back on our lives, will we regret the
latest mobile phone or luxury car that we did not acquire? Or would we
prefer to die at peace with ourselves, knowing that we have lived lives
filled with love, friendship and goodwill, that we have helped some of our
fellow voyagers along the way and that we have tried our best to leave this
world a slightly better place than how we found it?
We know which is the correct choice - and it is within our power to make
that choice.

In this new year, burdened as it is with the problems of the year that has
just ended, let us again try to choose wisely.
To a considerable degree, our happiness is within our own control, and we
should not follow the herd blindly.

Frugalista

The global financial crisis is definitely in our midst. Each and every newscast and news articles there is available have nothing to tell us but news about downsizing of companies left and right, mass layoffs happening in every corner of the world, even our own OFW's being sent home from their jobs abroad because of the current crisis. I am so happy that even before the crisis started late last year, I was able to get back into the corporate world (Thank God!) without any hitch, that way I was able to beat the crisis. I was reading the January-February 2009 issue of Preview magazine and it's editor-in-chief Pauline Suaco-Juan discussed about being fashion forward eventhough there is a crisis, and she used the word "frugalista". A frugalista, according to the New York Times, is defined as “a person who lives a frugal lifestyle but stays fashionable and healthy by swapping clothes, buying secondhand, growing own produce, etc.”. And, this term has been certified and is already included in the newer editions of the 2009 Oxford American Dictionary. Wow! A new word to describe people who are still fasyon during times of crisis. I think I should adapt the attitude of being a frugalista. It is an irony for me who loves shopping for clothes, but since we are experiencing uncertain times, I have to tighten my belt a bit. I have been trying, for the longest time, to scour ukay-ukay stores around our dear Metro Manila, but I haven't found the time to go to one. This year will just be the perfect time for me to hit the ukay ukay stores, since I know there are alot of hiden fashion treasures available for me there, all I need is patience and a sense of intuition. I would so love to grow my own veggies and fruits, but the place I live in doesn't give me the luxury of having a lawn for me to do so. In place of that, I'll include vegetables in my daily diet. Frugalista is such a positive word! I do not find the word offensive or something, and I think it's just best that we have to be frugal (after all, it is the root word of frugalista) during these trying times. I encourage everyone to live a frugalista lifestyle! There are just a lot of ways to become one, and we have to start TODAY!